More Progress!

Yesterday the Christmas fabric was up next on the Accuquilt! I have never made a Christmas quilt, but I want to.

I'm in jellyroll Heaven! I've been searching and finding lots of strip quilt patterns. What fun I'll have!

Here's my strip stash - so far.... And I must say that they take up a lot less room like this!!!

I'm going back to the storage unit this morning to pick up more fabric to sort and cut. I'm making progress faster than I expected - a very good thing.

Have a great day!!!

My Day (and My Neighborhood)

It was Stash Attack Day here yesterday! I kicked off the process of taming my stash. I started it out with a garbage bag full of fabric. One piece at a time, I pressed it.

Then I layered it on my 2.5" die on my Accuquilt Studio.  Once I had plenty of fabric in place, I rolled it through to cut the strips.

And then I put the strips into plastic shoe bins organized by color.

When I first began the process in the morning, I hoped to do one bag per day. I'll have more than 16 bags! Then I as got into the process I thought I was too optimistic. A. Lot. Of. Fabric.

But I stuck to it and by the end of the day I'd emptied TWO bags! Yay!

As I worked, I set aside some chunks of fabric to cut with other dies at another time. I'm thrilled with my progress. These strips will be very usable. I'm not cutting ALL my fabric like this - just the older stuff. My more modern fabric will be left in fat quarters. I'm happy! Two large garbage bags reduced to 3 small bins!

I got lots of questions yesterday about our new neighborhood! So here's the scoop:

The neighborhood is centered around a fabulous golf course (Grand National). The course is hosting a professional senior tour event next month. In addition to the award winning course, there is a par three course, and a driving range. Yes, hubby is a golfer. There's a fabulous hotel (Marriott), also. As homeowners here, we can use all the amenities of the hotel (pools, gym, tennis and pickle ball courts, billiard room, restaurants, etc.). And we get a discount at the restaurants. There are also 18 miles of trails through the woods and around the lakes on the property. And we get all our lawn care provided, too. We do pay HOA dues for all this, but they are very reasonable. The bigger the house, the more the HOA fees are. We have one of the smallest homes.  You can read more about it HERE.

Our Weekend!

This is the inside of one of our storage units - scary, huh? So much stuff!!! Can you find hubby in the photo? He's in there! We spent an evening in here looking for four specific items. We found three of them - score!

We are now officially unpacked at the cottage. No more boxes! We also spent some time over the weekend hanging pictures, making it feel more like home. My sewing room is really looking good!

Yesterday we took time out to go to the pool. I actually swam laps! We have three pools in our neighborhood - the heated indoor pool (where I swam), the adult only pool (seen in photo above), and a family pool that has waterfalls, fountains, and a tunnel slide. You can see the splash bar in the picture above - they serve delicious food (brisket burger, anyone?) and have live music every night. Yes, I'm liking our new neighborhood!

Today I'm going to start tackling my fabric stash. I'll be sorting, pressing, and cutting with my Accuquilt Studio. Looking forward to touching fabric!!!

No One Guessed It!

I thought someone would figure this out! But no! So here's the answer. It's my new sewing chair! Is this not the cutest thing EVER?! By golly, if I'm going to have a tiny sewing room, it's going to be cute! The part I showed yesterday fits at the base of the legs - see it down there?

I worked hard in this room yesterday and it's coming together nicely.  I plan to be sewing today  in fact!!!

I have to admit, a week ago or so I had a few moments of panic about our new cottage. Will all my sewing stuff have a place? Have we made a mistake by downsizing so much? But once I've started getting my things in place I realize that I have room for everything I need. Yay!

Did you read that? "EVERYTHING I NEED!" As I unpack things (whether it's clothes, or sewing notions, or vases) I'm bagging up things I really don't need to donate to a charity. I load these bags into my car immediately and the next trip out they are dropped off.

Yesterday hubby and I celebrated out 32 year anniversary! When you've been married this long you don't need a fancy restaurant to celebrate. We decided to get take-out Chinese and  enjoyed a quiet evening.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

What is this????

Here's a little guessing game for you! Do you know what this is??? Here's a hint: it will be in my new sewing room...

I'll send a prize to the first person to correctly identify this. And you must use its "proper name."

Robbie, one of my favorite readers (because she always leaves sweet comments), shared her small space ideas:

I too have a 'sewing' room that is quite small...but a wood (heavy! bugger!) baby bassinet works great to use the drawers for projects, etc. (you can see a pic here:  http://robbiespawprints.blogspot.com/2016/05/in-between-stitching.html). I also have another wooden dresser (yep, another yard sale!) that also is great for cutting/ironing/storing! That one is here: 
http://robbiespawprints.blogspot.com/2009/09/space.htmlAmazing what we can do in such small spaces! But works for me! I have less steps needed to take! HA Always a plus!


Be sure to check out the links to see what she done!

Small Space Storage for Sewing Rooms!

I got the greatest comment yesterday on the blog from Linda:


"I just moved my sewing room to the old living room. No closet so storage was an issue! I found a perfect solution at IKEA. Take a look:  http://uggabearcottage.blogspot.com/2016/03/sewing-room-storage.html A look at my finished new room is in a more recent post. Congrats on the new room and new house!"

Wow! That Pax cabinet is amazing! Love the pull out baskets! Thanks for the inspiration, Linda!!!

Well, that got me thinking. I'm transitioning from a large dedicated sewing room to a smaller multipurpose room. And I'm not the only quilter who has a small space in which to work! So come on quilters - share your ideas for storage in a small space! I know you have some good ones! Leave a comment or send me an email (juliacwood@mac.com). 

So yesterday I turned my back for a minute and Cooper ate the instructions for hanging the shower curtain rod. Well, he actually just ate the English language section. I'm left with the Spanish part. Needless to say, it didn't get mounted yesterday...

I did unpack a bedroom box and ended up with three large garbage bags ready to get donated to a charity. Pairing down is good! I think I only have one more box to unpack! Woohoo!

Of course we still have to go through LOTS of stuff in the storage unit, but that will happen eventually...

What's in my Trunk?

What's in those bags??? Fabric! Yesterday a friend went with me to our storage unit. We bagged up some of my fabric - yes, I have a LOT of fabric - to bring to the cottage. Soon I'll be sorting, pressing, and cutting up this load into strips and squares. I'll give the tiny scraps to a friend who can use them for an animal charity - she makes pet beds and stuffs them with little scraps of batting and fabric.

I'm actually looking forward to diving into this mess! Creating organization from chaos will be nice. I won't be starting this today, but soon, I hope.

Yesterday afternoon I went with hubby on my first hike here in our new neighborhood. The trails are neat, with the ground covered in crushed brick. We walked a couple of miles with the dogs. The humidity was fierce, but I'll get acclimated soon.

This morning I'm trimming a friend's quilt and getting it ready to bind for her. And I hope to unpack a box and hang a shower curtain rod.  Making progress, slowing but surely.

Have a great day!!!